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How To Fleurish: Vision Board

In 2018, we would like to introduce a new monthly column: How To Fleurish. We want everyone to live their best lives and How To Fleurish is here to help. Wanna learn how to survive music festivals or get better at thrifting? Would you like to become more mindful during meditation or how to start a small garden in your apartment? We understand and in the spirit of thriving, we are here to help. First up: A New Year’s vision board to keep you on track for your goals.

What better way to bring in the New Year than by making a vision board? A vision board is intended to help declare and guide your goals for the upcoming period. It’s like a list of goals, aspirations and vibes to be carried, all in one convenient board. There’s no wrong way to do this so don’t worry if it doesn’t look what you think of as “perfect”. Everyone’s soul and path is different so feel free to use this as a loose guide in the creation and declaration of your goals. Let’s get started.

Meditate. At year’s end, who do you want to be? What do you want to have accomplished? What habits would you have liked to pick up? How would it feel if you have accomplished it? Before you pick up a single glue stick, it is important you ruminate on your goals, why you want these goals and why the achievement is important to you. Think on who you are now and who/what you want to be in the upcoming year. We recommend being intentional but there is no “right or wrong” answer here, just right & wrong for you.

Write. The goals you have mulled over and confirmed for yourself and your path need to take their form as words. Personally, I tend to write a near essay every time (verbose, I can’t help it) but some people write bullet points and their methods work for them. It all depends on personal preference and comfort level. Be specific where you can be.

Some people recommend starting with “I am” and writing from the standpoint of the completed year. I wrote “I will” because it is more tangible as a to do list. But just go with what works for you!

Create. Again, no wrong way to do this step, just wrong for you. Some people do digital vision boards, pin to Pinterest, some people actually put pins to cork. You could be old fashioned, cut and glue images and words to construction paper or even draw it all. I like a mixed media option because I like to be difficult but my goals are worth it.

My preliminary materials for the creation of this board. I also used markers, stock paper and magazines (which pained me to cut up).

Affirm. This step might require additional thought and can come before and after the creation. This is where you select your mantra or the general theme of the vision board. What patterns do you see in the your vision board? Is there a common theme? My vision board here is “Forward & onward. Progress.”

A bit of my finished vision board. I put the energy I would like to carry in 2018, on the board several times, along with my goals.

Activate. After the creation of the vision board, you can’t just lose sight of the vision. It’s now time to kick start the vision. My personal suggestion is to light a candle and pray with the vision board. There are some who hide their vision boards and others who place it where they will see it again. Either way, something I do recommend is breaking down each goal month by month and week by week in your planner to really get shit popping. A huge goal is probably easier when you look at the on the micro level and not the macro.

Some ideas to activate the vision board:

Light a candle, any candle, pray and meditate with the board nearby

Put the vision board where you see it all the time.

Break it down in your planner or calendar by goal or mini goals, month by month

Taken after my meditation and prayer over the board. Breaking down each goal, one by one, and marking it down in a planner is a great way to make something that seems intangible simpler.

Now, as Thoreau said, “go forth boldly in the direction of your dreams”, using your vision board as map on how to fleurish in your life this new year.